


the lucky one(s)

by letterfromathief



Category: Power Rangers Dino Charge
Genre: F/M, Fluff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-01-21
Updated: 2016-01-21
Packaged: 2018-05-15 06:55:57
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,772
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5775937
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/letterfromathief/pseuds/letterfromathief
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>At the end of their shifts, Tyler and Shelby settle down to watch some TV.</p>
            </blockquote>





	the lucky one(s)

**Author's Note:**

> inspired by [this](http://swanisms.tumblr.com/post/134494738656/writing-prompts-strike-again) and [this](http://swanisms.tumblr.com/post/134801728417/some-aus) prompt and thanks to @kathillards for the TV show titles; canon compliant up to "The Ghostest with the Mostest.”

“Ugh. I feel like a T-Rex. Help me grab that, will you?”

Shelby turns and stares at him but his fingers merely twitch on her shoulder, still reaching out. His dimples are too deep for him to be serious, but the situation feels kind of serious when, even though it would’ve been easier for him to just get up and grab the remote himself, he draped his arm over her, fitting it perfectly around her shoulders.

“You’re acting like one, too,” Shelby says. She shakes her head while attempting to lean out of his embrace, and mutters, “Only someone with a brain the size of a T-Rex would think reaching behind my back would be a smarter option than just asking me to begin with.”

“You’re right about that,” Tyler says.

He sounds almost cheery about her insult. Too cheery even. Although ‘too cheery’ is an understatement for how he usually is. Then again, she’d rather see him pull one of those dimpled smiles that always makes her want to grin in response than see him without it. But _then again_ , his smile now is just too cheery, too easily making her heart want to fly right out of her chest and make a getaway with a speed that would put Koda chasing after a burger to shame.

“I know I’m right,” Shelby says shakily.

Smiling wider at her nervous assurance, Tyler finally loosens his grip enough that she can lean all the way over and grab the remote off the table.

“So what are we watching?” Shelby asks as she hands him the remote.

Tyler takes a moment to switch the brand new, state of the art, gifted by no less than the Prince of Zandar himself HD, 3D, All-D (for the dinosaurs Prince Philip had emblazoned on the base) TV.

“It’s 7 so _Demigod_ is on,” Tyler says.

“Oh, no, we are not watching that,” Shelby says.

Tyler raises an eyebrow curiously. “You don’t like it?” he asks.

“No, I -”

She stumbles over her words because ‘No,’ she _does_ like it, but she can’t like it with him. There’s a difference between her liking the show in the safety of her bedroom where no one can see her make faces or hear her squeal when she rewinds and watches Annabeth and Percy’s first kiss again, and her liking it where Tyler can see how deeply into the romantic subplot she is.

Although, with Tyler’s obliviousness the likelihood of him mistaking her investment as some kind of sickness is higher than the likelihood of him noticing that she’s shifting centimeter by centimeter out of his arm’s reach because getting close to him is a capital B, Bad Idea.

Shelby tried getting as close to him as possible. She wore the princess gown, donned the heels from hell all for the feeling of his skin beneath her lips and that only made it _worse._ If she makes it worse than that, it can only mean her making a complete fool of herself. Worse than that can mean her never being able to look Tyler in the eyes again.

Shelby _likes_ Tyler’s eyes. Even when they don’t see her the way she wants them to.

“No, I don’t like it,” she lies.

She makes a quick scan of the room to make sure Kendall isn’t in sight to narrow her eyes and write this moment down for the next time they have to use the ranger detector to embarrass Shelby, or figure out whether one of them is a monster trying to steal an energem and destroy the world.

(One of those is worse than the other and it certainly isn’t the monster.)

“What do you want to watch?”

“ _Do Dinosaurs Dream?_ is on now too,” she says brightly.

She sees her way out, now all Tyler has to do is take the bait. He groans instead, not only ignoring the bait, but giving it the most disdainful look he can muster which is easy with his dark eyebrows knit together in a deep frown.

“My brain is full up on dinosaur facts for the week, Shelby. I can only take so much,” Tyler whines.

Shelby whines, too, so Tyler sighs and says, “Meteor, Sledge, Dinos for it?”

She raises an eyebrow. “Is this something _you_ came up with?”

“Chase did, actually,” Tyler says. “It’s Rock, Paper, Scissors with a ranger twist.”

“Dinos beat Sledge who beats the meteor...unfortunately, who beats Dinos, more unfortunately?” Shelby says.

Tyler confirms her guess with a nod, but also adds, “Only, you have to make a dinosaur noise if you choose that and your best impression of Sledge for him.”

He wiggles his fingers against her neck, his palm warm where it rests on her collar. It tickles, but in a good way - or what would be good if Tyler pulling away wasn’t enough to make her flounder.

“Alright, alright,” Shelby laughs nervously.

Tyler narrows his eyes at her. “I’m not holding back, Shelby.”

“This is a game of luck, Tyler,” Shelby reminds him.

And luck? Luck is not on her side.

It takes him one growling T-Rex noise, complete with T-Rex arms folded to his chest to defeat her hands on her hip, evil growling Sledge. She takes it the best she can, making sure she’s moved far away enough that if she maybe makes a little noise when Percy and Annabeth reunite on screen, he won’t even notice it.

“I thought Kronos was bad, but this?” Tyler says. “I just want Percy to get back to Annabeth and her to get to him.”

“They shouldn’t have…” Shelby searches for something to say that won’t get her admitted to the ’ _one of those crazy fans_ ’ club - “Broken up the team.”

“I agree,” Tyler says.

He does _more_ than agree. Tyler’s quiet and contemplative on occasion, but this is not one of those occasions, this is Tyler in full battle mode, ready to fight the TV for every moment that Annabeth and Percy are separated and Shelby Just Can’t Take It.

Because he moves in close with his first excited fist pump and you’d think there’d be nothing closer than shoulder to shoulder but he manages somehow. She manages to feel his warmth from every point of her body, especially when he turns into her and protests “the injustice of it all” in her ear, his mouth far, far, _far_ too close, too quiet, too... _everything._

Especially that last part. Repeat it. Write it down. Underline it, highlight, and circle it. It’s too _everything_ when she’s watching Percy and Annabeth pine for each other on a 90" screen.

Her sigh is two parts swooning, one part miserable, and just a touch surprised - that part due to Tyler whispering, “I thought you said you didn’t like this.”

If Shelby wasn’t struggling to keep herself in check, his casual words would only make her stutter a little on her reply. But since she already is, it completely breaks the dam and she ends up flooding him with words while she turns into him, their noses almost brushing before he pulls back.

“I know, I know I did, but it’s just - I _really_ love Percy and Annabeth and it’s really embarrassing, and it’s worse because, well, _because_ you’re here and I don’t want to watch them with you.”

“Is that all?”

She pauses at his tone and at the way he looks away from her for a second. She hasn’t seen Tyler look nervous before, not really, nothing she could snap a picture of and label “This is Nervous Tyler Navarro,” but if she had, it would look something like this. Something like the way his grin keeps rising and falling, softening more and more with each fall until he’s not grinning, just staring at her, lips slightly parted in something she doesn’t really understand because it almost looks like an invitation.

It almost looks like he wants her to go on.

She swallows down the sudden urge to make a hasty escape.

“Why don’t you want to watch it with me?” he asks.

“Why do _you_ want to watch it with _me_?” Shelby asks.

“Because I like the show,” Tyler says. Shelby waits a beat and it’s a good thing she does give herself those few seconds to breathe because he steals it away when he says, “Because I like you.”

_I like you, too_ , seems like it would be a good and appropriate thing to say in this situation, but Annabeth yells Percy’s name and Shelby whips her head to the screen to watch as they embrace each other in a hug.

Shelby squeals, but to be fair, Tyler _did_ just say he liked her while her favorite couple reunited with each other. She can allow herself one embarrassing squeal. But one is enough, and she doesn’t let herself squeal or make any other embarrassing noise when Tyler presses his chin to her shoulder and says, "And, of course, because you like it as much as I do."

“You _didn’t_ know that,” she says.

“It was a lucky guess,” Tyler says.

Luck is definitely not on her side today. She knows this because she makes another noise as Annabeth and Percy kiss and Tyler laughs against her, his chuckles shaking her as much as they shake him. She knows this because when her face warms up, Tyler uses that as an opportunity to say, “We make a good team, too,” like some kind of afterthought rather than a comparison between the couple kissing on screen and _them_.

She knows this because she turns into him and misses the opportunity to make that comparison more comparable by reuniting her lips with Tyler’s cheek - and ends up _kissing_ him, freezing up as she feels his lips beneath hers.

She knows this because luck is on _Tyler’s_ side and he doesn’t freeze up. He just moves around so that it’s easier for him to draw her into the kiss and make her break her vow _not_ to squeal more than once when Koda announces his presence with a shouted, “Demigod!” and crashes onto the couch beside Shelby and _not_ Tyler, elbowing Shelby in the side and not him.

As Shelby’s luck would have it, it’s the best kiss she’s ever had and it lasted only five breathless seconds.

But as _Tyler’s_ luck would have it, he’s the one that gets to drive her home afterwards - and maybe she’s a little lucky too because the second kiss against his jeep door lasts a billion times longer than the first, and her embarrassingly happy sigh is met with one of his own.


End file.
